Well, since my last post, I was in some heavy resentment when I realized I needed to tear up my Work In Progress (WIP) and restructure it. I tried the other day to bang around some ideas, but all my attempts failed and I was ready to quit. That's the first time since I started this back in 2008 that I really thought I didn't need to write. "Stupid of me to think I ever could. I'll never be able to make this work." This was the audio tape I was hearing in my brain being played back to me every time another of my attempts at salvaging what I already had and just moving things around a little failed.
I've learned over the past two weeks, that the best thing for me is a 'cooling off'' period. When I get that frustrated over a writing project, my best bet is to stop thinking about it. Just take it out of my mind and do something totally different. So far, my results have been better than I could've ever expected. All because I'd gotten frustrated over what I was writing in my main WIP, I've made progress in something else. It used to be the only story I was working on. Then I needed a break from it and bounced around some other things. Now I have a few chapters in each of these other projects as well. They give my brain a rest and allow it to still be successful and creative. Just in these two weeks when I've been frustrated and needed a break, I've pumped out two short stories that I'm pretty proud of.
So today, I didn't write at all, until just now. Didn't write one thing other than talking to my Twitter friends and commenting on my friends' posts on Facebook. At first, it wasn't really on purpose, but then as the end of the day drew near and I hadn't written anything, I realized I needed to do that to allow my brain time to 'perk'. After I started supper on the grill, I began to write down a new and hopefully improved outline/synopsis of what was coming out of my mind at this point with the main WIP. I think this will work better, although, I haven't actually started writing it yet. I've got a better feeling about it than I did yesterday, so I hope my intuitions are correct. My good friends, Brenda and @DarkeConteur both said they thought the main part of the story needed to stay in the present and do memory/flashbacks rather than start in the present for the first 8 pgs., switch to the past-stay there the majority of the time and then end in the present again. I've seen it done that way in movies, so I thought it would work, but books are different from movies. My biggest clue was when I was trying to write my query letter. No matter how many times I wrote it, I couldn't make it say what was happening in the book and it still make sense in 250 words. I think this will help the pacing and keep the reader turning pages. I hope so anyway.
So, tomorrow, I'm setting my alarm, getting up before my husband who gets up at 5:30 and take advantage of the quiet house and see how much I can get done tomorrow. Writing makes me happy. :) I think I'm going to keep doing it after all. As for now, I'm typing and sipping on a margarita I made for myself. Cheers! :)
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